Frisk woke up to the sounds of children. Yelling and laughter, and the patter of tiny feet. When she tried to turn towards the noise however, her body saw fit to remind her of all her aches. Groaning, Frisk rolled herself onto her side and blinked blearily around the strange room she was in. The walls were all raw wood, except the one with the window with its lower half being stone. Her eyes were drawn to said window. It was closed, little wooden doors held closed by a simple wooden latch, and from what Frisk could see, there wasn't any glass and she could feel a soft chill from it.
A thud on the wall near her head broke her thoughts and Frisk turned her attention towards the day. Voices stood outside, an older one sounded almost like it was scolding the other. Then the voices left.
She frowned. Where was she? With another grunt she propped herself to her elbows and stared down at herself. Ah. Bones stared back at her. That's right. She stared around the room again with new eyes. Those two, the human and monster, had brought her inside. She wondered vaguely if this was their home, then felt a flash of guilt. Oh stars, this wasn't one of their beds was it? If it was, where had they slept? Pushed by her guilt Frisk forced herself up on her feet.
Now that she had rested she felt the ache in her body full force. Her joints throbbed and her soul ached from whatever had happened with the Reset. She took a moment to check herself over, readjust herself to her new body. She frowned at her naked self, it would be a long time before she got used to this. That is if she didn't figure how to fix this all before then.
After almost leaving the closed room still naked before dragging her 'borrowed' blanket back around herself, Frisk stepped outside into the hall.
Light flowed in from the end to her left, which she thought might open up into a large room. The sounds of children was louder now, and grew as she made her way through the building.
It was a child that noticed her first. The room she was now in was filled with them. Children played with toys and each other around a large fire place that oddly enough sat in the middle of the room, a large table pushed against the far wall next to a door and open windows showing a snowy yard. The building was odd, Frisk had seen stairs to a second level but in this main room there was just open space above her, smoke from the fire seeping out through a spot in the roof. She could see where the second floor ended, wood supports propping it up about a third of the way into the room. And up near the roof was some sort of small open loft, a ladder leading up to it.
The monster child that had spotted her gasped, and pushed excitedly at the human child they had been playing with. Before she knew it the two tiny things were at her feet and staring up at her, voices running unintelligibly.
Frisk started a little at them, then stared curiously. In the hallway, she was only just able to stand without hitting her head on the roof, and these two children barely even reached her knees.
A call from further in the room had the children jumping back and staring sheepishly at the large bird monster swiftly moving up to them. In the daylight, Frisk openly stared at the monster, taking in the sight of the creature that had helped her the night before. Her feathers were mostly a dusty green, with peeks of red and purple along the edges, and a dark beak. If it wasn't for the feathered hands Frisk would have likened her to Snowdrake. Wrapped around her front, Frisk noticed, was some sort of dull red apron and nothing else.
She didn't hesitate to step into Frisks space. Soft hands found one of her elbows under her blanket and without much fuss Frisk let the she monster lead her back down the hall and into the bedroom she had just left.
The birds voice washed over her, and Frisk tried to make it out, but quickly stopped and focused instead on her face and movements. She looked a little like Toriel did when she was scolding her, so Frisk assumed she probably should have stayed in the room.
As the monster closed the door and turned to look at her Frisk stuttered, shifting nervously.
"Um, uh, I'm sorry? Was I supposed to stay here? I'm not sure…" her jaw shifted a little Frisk realised she couldn't chew her lip. Instead she felt two of her teeth grind against each other.
The monster studied her, and for a moment she looked a little helpless, before pulling herself up and stepping towards her.
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Anamira closed the door to her room-come-guest room and stared at her new guest.
She had been just a little surprised when she had turned away from little Marius to see Botti and Jen at the feet of the tall skeleton. Their guest had seemed confused, but interested in something as she stared down at the children, still wrapped in her blanket. Anamira then wasted no time and reeling back the two children and escorting the skeleton back to her room. Now that she was awake Anamira would make sure their guest was cleaned and dressed before they tried to figure out what had happened to them.
She watched the other shuffle slightly, and Anamira listened to the curious way her language sounded. This would be a little harder than she wished it would be. For a moment Anamira wondered if they shouldn't have just left the tall skeleton out in the snow, they had no idea where she had come from, or what kind of person she was, or even what language she spoke. And they had just let her in, and potentially put the children in their care at risk.
But then Anamira looked up at the other monster, grinding her teeth in worry and looking like a scolded child despite her massive size, and the matron pushed those thoughts away.
"What in all the stars am I going to do with you?" Anamira sighed, rubbing her beak. Then stepped forward.
"Well, let's sit you down and see if we can't sort this all out, huh Stranger?" She was rather pleased when the large monster moved easily with her light touch and let Anamira sit them on the bed. Then she stepped over and grabbed the wash bowl and cloth she had left there earlier that morning, noting unsurprised that it hadn't been touched, and placed it on the chest at the end of the bed before kneeling down. the skeleton made some sort of noise, and question maybe, and a hand left the shelter of their blanket, as if the pull her back up off the floor. Anamira just swatted it away.
"Stop that, you great thing. I have no doubt you are a mess under that rag. Where in the world did you even get that thing? It's hardly appropriate for this weather." She tsked, and tugged at the brown thing.
There was a sharp complaint but the skeleton let the blanket go and Anamira's day just got a little more odd. Had this odd monster been naked this whole time? A quick glance around the room confirmed it, then her aghast gaze settled on her guest. "What in all the stars has happened to you?"
The skeleton didn't seem at all ashamed by her nakedness, although she shifted clearly uncomfortable. All four of her arms were curled up near her chest, hands fiddling with each other. And it was a little odd, Anamira had never heard of a skeleton monster that didn't look like a humans, at least in shape, so the extra arms and legs much like her own threw her a little. But the bird monster had never really left Gatehall, so what did she know really?
With one more look over, Anamira rung out the wash cloth, motioned cleaning herself and handed it over. The skeleton stared for a moment at the cloth, at her, then slowly started washing herself.
"Good." She nodded.
Anamira spent the next hour helping the skeleton wash, and much to her shock, teaching her how to put on the Basics Merl had found for her in the wash room. Now dressed and looking to her to make the next move, Anamira made the decision to take their guest back out to the main room.
This was going to be a long day.
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There were children piled around the edge of the door frame, peering into the kitchen to stare at her. Frisk stared right back, still quite confused at the mix of human and monster children. As the bird monster had led her back out into the rest of the house, the children had all gathered around, staring and asking what Frisk assumed were questions until the older monster had said something and they all backed off. From Frisk's count there were twelve children that she could see, of varying ages, and of those only four were human.
Frisk had a hunch as to what sort of place she found herself in.
Her attention was drawn back to the two adults when they shooed off the gathered children. The older human placed a plate with what looked like homemade bread and a slice of cheese on it. The plate was oddly made of clay, at least Frisk assumed that's what it was. She picked the food up carefully with her upper hands, her lower hands gently touching the bread. She thought about trying to lower them, but she had no idea what she would do with them, so just went with it.
In a few bites her bread and cheese was gone, and while she was still hungry, she didn't want to ask her hosts for more.
They sat at a small table pushed against the wall in the tiny warm kitchen, taking up the only three chairs. Her hosts watched her as she looked around. There was another fireplace in here, except this one was sitting on a raised stone step, bushed back into a square alcove. A metal bar ran across the top. A large blackened pot sat beside it, and a long handled pan hung from a peg on the wall beside it. Clay jars and baskets filled the shelves on the opposite wall, dried plants hung from more pegs, stuck into walls and even the beams of the roof. A large barrel sat near the door to the rest of the house, and a worn wooden bench sat in the middle of the room, a small knife left there by the man.
Finished with her inspection, Frisk turned her attention back to the two sitting with her.
"I'm sorry." She knew they couldn't understand her, but she hoped they could read it on her face.
She felt awful for having them look after her. They shouldn't have to deal with her problems.
The pair glanced at each other, before the man said something that Frisk took to be reassuring. He smiled, his brown eyes soft.
There was an awkward pause at they all stared at each other, until the bird monster huffed, obviously exasperated by it all, and leant forward. Frisk frowned at the word she said.
The monster said it again. Frisk blinked and zeroed in on the other. Was she…?
And again, the monster pointed to herself this time. Oh!
"Anamira." Frisk started into bright yellow eyes. It was her name!
"Anamira. That's a nice name." she said with a smile. The other monster, Anamira, huffed and gave her a beakish grin.
With one name, Frisk turned to the human. He perked up at her, crows feet crinkling with his smile as he said "Merl." And pointed to himself. Frisk repeated the name with a nod. It wasn't much, but it was a start.
Another short pause, before Merl shifted his hands on the table and motioned pointedly at her. Frisk blinked. Oh! She was so rude! She breathed in unnecessarily and-
"F̛̖͚̻͙͓̩̑̂̉ͤ͗̇͐ͧ͢ͅr̵̫͎͛͗͡͡ĭ͌ͥ҉̵̰̮͙̟s̳̟͔̄̓́͝k̷̴̡͇͓͕̦͍̣̅͛͛ͭ̇̒"
And stopped. Merl and Anamira's faces turned confused, muttering something to each other then looking back at her. Frisk frowned. What in the world had just come out of her mouth?
"My name is |̿ ̶̿'╮| ͇ ͇\̿ ̿ |⟨ !" Frisk hissed (a real, proper hiss that she will probably remember later), upset and confused. Her two hosts raised their hands towards her in what should have been a calming gesture, but Frisk was getting truly upset now. She had dealt with a lot of things recently, and rather well she would say. And Frisk knew logically that she really shouldn't be upset by this of all the things she could get upset about. But it was the straw that broke her back. Her chest heaved, and she could feel the burn of the Determination she didn't have anymore. Distantly she noticed Merl stand and crouch beside her, calloused hand rubbing her arm and he stared down at him with blurry eyes. "I can say it! I can. I have my name! I do!" Tears bubbled and she wanted nothing more than to feel Flowey's vines and petals around her, or Toriel's strong arms. Stressed her hands flapped, signing sloppily like she had before she fell, before her friends made her comfortable enough to speak up, in a final effort to tell them her name. For a brief moment Frisk felt hope, as Merl's eyes lit with recognition. That hope was crushed as he turned sad eyes to her and shook his head, and clumsily signed a decisive 'no'. "I do, it's mine. My name is [REDACTED]"